The international symposium, "Strengthening the International Network-hub for the Future Earth", was held 23-24 October at Arenberg Castle, which is part of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. The event was focused on the International Network-hub for "Future Earth" ("FE"): Research for Global Sustainability, a program run by Kyoto University's Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies (GSGES), with funding from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) on the basis of its relevance to JSPS’s Strategic Young Researcher Overseas Visits Program for Accelerating Brain Circulation.
The FE is a new research initiative started by the International Council for Science (ICSU) in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations University (UNU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the Belmont Forum. Its goal is to amass the knowledge required for shaping a sustainable future by fusing observational research on elements such as the atmosphere, oceans, land, and the Earth’s crust, which to date has been conducted chiefly in the natural sciences, with research on politics, economics, culture, and other aspects of human society. The International Network-hub program, for its part, aims to contribute to this goal by creating 10 sustainable FE Networks making full use of the academic achievements and personal connections that may be gained through international joint research in each area of Global Environmental Studies, with the GSGES itself serving as a hub.
Under this program, 10 early-career researchers have already been dispatched to partner research institutes, and the symposium held in Belgium, which is located at the center of the EU region, was the very first get-together opportunity for those and all the other researchers involved in the GSGES initiative, including those at the host institutions as well as staff researchers.
The event began with an opening address by GSGES Dean Shigeo Fuji, followed by a presentation by Professor Takeshi Katsumi about the Network-hub program, for which he serves as the chief researcher. Next, Professors Raf Dewil and Lise Appels from KU Leuven each gave a plenary lecture, before researchers taking part in the initiative -- dispatched researchers and their counterparts at the host institutions as well as staff researchers -- gave presentations about their respective international collaborative projects. Following these talks, symposium participants actively discussed how the achievements, know-how, and organizational structure of the GSGES as an Asian hub for international interdisciplinary research and collaboration could be applied to strengthening and expanding international research networks in industrialized countries in Europe and North America. The highly productive event concluded with closing marks by Professor Raf Dewil.
Commemorative photo
Dr Shigeo Fujii, GSGES Dean, giving the opening address
